GravityQuest
by lofallenve
Summary: When Dipper and Mabel are accepted to a summer camp for young authors, they can't wait. But something's weird at this camp. And the girl their staying with in Michigan until AuthorQuest begins is a little... let's just say antisocial... Could this camp actually be even weirder than Gravity Falls? Rated T because Gabby's a jerk.
1. Chapter 1

**June, 2013**  
>"Dipper, could you get the mail?" Mrs. Pines called from the kitchen. He put the short story he was writing down on the coffee table and went outside. The black mailbox at the front of the yard had some papers sticking out of it.<p>

He emptied the mailbox and looked through the contents as he walked inside. An envelope caught his eye, as it was addressed to him. The return address was from somewhere in Michigan. He slipped it into his pocket, to read later. The next letter was from the same place, but for Mabel.

He went back inside and gave his mom the mail that wasn't for him and his sister. He left Mabel's letter where he knew she'd find it, and hurried back into the living room. As he sat down, Dipper tore open the letter. Inside was a small packet of papers. He scanned the first page, and his eyes found something in the fourth paragraph.

You can rest easy. This is good news.

You've been accepted into AuthorQuest. Included you'll find a list of things to bring, a registration form, and a medical information sheet.

A small shriek escaped his throat. He'd been expecting this letter since last summer.

A scream filled the air. Mabel sprinted into the living room, clutching her letter tightly.

"I GOT ACCEPTED TO AUTHORQUEST!" She screamed.

"I did too!"

The two jumped around screaming happily until Mr. Pines looked into the room.

"Did Mabel see another spider?" He asked. Mabel shook her head, her eyes practically glowing. She handed the twins' dad her letter, and Dipper handed his over as well. Their father read the letters, and then looked up at them, his eyes twinkling. "I'm very proud of you two. You can definitely go."

Mabel started screaming again. Dipper was content to watch her, but that didn't stop the joyous tears from welling up in his eyes. This was a dream come true.

**August 3, 2013**

The Pines twins were waiting at the airport. They were flying to Petoskey, Michigan, where they would be picked up, to get used to the time gap before camp on the 7th. A family friend, Patricia Lange, had agreed to let them stay at her house and drop them off at AuthorQuest, seeing as she'd also be dropping off her granddaughter.

Their plane began boarding. Their parents had tapped into their college funds and got them first class seats. Dipper shoved his carry-on bag into the small compartment, and then helped Mabel with hers. He sat down, a notebook on his lap and pencil in his hand. He was writing a new story to share with the other campers, counselors, and instructors. Mabel brought one of her old poems to share.

As soon as he could, Dipper turned on his iPod and plugged in his earphones. He set it on shuffle and went back to his story.

It was about an order of people who gathered in a forest, performed spells, and sacrificed humans from time to time. He couldn't figure out what to call it yet.

He must have dozed off. When his eyes cracked open and he checked the time on his iPod, four hours had gone by.

"We'll be landing in Petoskey in two hours." A voice said over the intercom. Mabel was shaking in her seat. Dipper glanced over at her. She was grinning manically. He managed a smile, and then fell back asleep.

"Dipper… Wake up…"

Dipper groaned as he opened his eyes. Something was different. They weren't moving.

"We're here?" He asked groggily, wiping sleep out of his eyes.

"Yeah." Mabel said softly. Dipper quickly felt more awake. He sat up and grabbed his bag from the overhead compartment. The twins hurried off the plane and to the baggage claim. They found their bags, and went to look for Mrs. Lange.

They found her quickly, seeing as she was shouting their names. Dipper and Mabel hurried over. She was accompanied by a skittish looking girl with chunky black glasses and slightly wavy brown hair. The girl gave a little wave, whereas her grandmother enveloped the twins in a hug. When she let go, she turned to the girl.

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself?" She asked. Her granddaughter sighed.

"Fine. I'm Gabby, also going to AuthorQuest, and if you think that you're going to get any more out me, you're sadly mistaken." She snapped. Mrs. Lange gave her a sharp look, but she only shrugged and muttered something about not liking to talk to people.

'How would she be able to share a story if she couldn't talk to people?' Dipper thought. Awkward silence was pushed aside; however, as the group of four left the airport and went out to Pat's red van.

Gabby went to open the passenger door, but her grandmother stopped her.

"Don't you think it'd be more polite to sit with them in the back?"

"Don't you think if I wanted friends, I'd try harder?" She muttered, but still closed the passenger door and climbed into the back. Mabel climbed in after her, followed by Dipper. Mabel had claimed one window seat, and Gabby had the other. She was staring out of the window, whispering words that Dipper couldn't hear even though he was right beside her.

Mrs. Lange started the car, and they peeled out of the parking lot. She kept the radio off, so they were surrounded by an almost tangible silence. Gabby was completely ignoring Dipper and his twin, instead of attempting to talk to them; she had pulled a notebook out of her bulky purse.

"Hey, Gabby, wouldn't it be cool if we were bunkmates? Then we could talk all night!" Mabel chattered.

"Eh…"

Dipper sighed. Waiting with this girl for four days was going to be terrible. He found himself stunned by how much Gabby looked like Mabel, if Mabel got glasses and turned emo, that is…

**2 hours later**

The van pulled into the driveway of a wooden house. The second the car stopped, Gabby burst from her seat and out the door. She jogged across the street and sat on a wooden bench by a fountain, writing again. Dipper looked at Mabel in confusion.

"I can get her to talk to us. I can feel it." Mabel said as they climbed out of the car. Dipper rolled his eyes. Mabel thought all that it would take to crack a person's shell, no matter how strong, was to find something they had in common. Looking from the cheerful girl in front of him to the gloomy girl by the fountain, he would guess that the only thing they had in common was the need for air, food, and water. That wouldn't really make for a great conversation…

Pat ushered the two inside.

"You'll be sleeping on the couches, so you can leave your stuff out here. When you're not sleeping, everywhere but the office is fair game." She explained. The twins thanked her and set their stuff down. Mabel quickly called the longer of the two. They sat down on their couches just as Gabby pushed open the door. She hurried though the green carpeted living room, her eyes never straying from the floor. She turned down a hallway and vanished from sight.

"I'm really sorry about her. She used to love talking to people." Pat said quietly. Dipper shrugged, while his sister frowned.

"Maybe she'd talk to me about writing." She muttered. Dipper glanced over at her. Mabel gave him a confident look and got up to try to get the practically mute girl to speak.

She didn't come back for a while, so Dipper assumed it was going ok. He heard soft singing coming from the room. About a half hour later, Mabel skipped back out to the living room.

"So, she writes songs and lives by Detroit. That's all she'd tell me." She said. "I mean, at least I got something out of her."

"Yeah..." Dipper trailed off. If that was all she could get in half an hour, he doubted she'd ever tell them anything interesting.

**This was Saturday. Here's Wednesday, the 7th**

They were all shaken awake at eight in the morning. While Dipper knew that they had to be at camp by 9:30 am, he still was reluctant to get out of bed. Regardless, he got up and got dressed in his usual orange tee, blue vest, grey shorts, and blue and white hat. Gabby was already sitting at the table, swirling some soggy cereal around in a bowl.

Dipper walked over tiredly and cracked a smile when he saw what she had been eating.

"So, are you cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?" He asked sarcastically. Gabby shot him a cold look.

"Shaddup and let me be nervous!" She snapped. Dipper rolled his eyes, now used to her rude remarks. Mabel skipped over to join them at the table.

"Morning, guys!" She chirped. Dipper smiled, while Gabby nodded.

"Hurry up, kids. We'll be leaving soon." Pat said as she walked into the room. Dipper and Mabel both poured bowls of cereal and began eating as Gabby dumped the rest of hers into the sink. Once he was finished, it was 8:45. They'd be leaving in fifteen minutes, so he pulled his notebook out of the bag resting at his feet and looked it over. Once he decided that it was ok, it was nine o'clock. Mabel was nervously tucking her hair behind her ears and smoothing her llama hair sweater, whereas Gabby was writing on her hands and forearms.

End of Chapter One


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

August 7th, 9:15 a.m.

The backseat wasn't as crammed as it had been on the drive from Petoskey to Indian River, seeing as Gabby was sitting in the middle row. She was turned around, listening to Mabel's poems.

"I wrote this one Mermando had to go back to his… family. I guess I was just really shaken up. So, here it is:

_I've tried to mend my heart  
>But it aches with every beat<br>I've tried to forget him  
>But it hurts to much to think<br>About him, me, anything..._

_I still don't understand  
>What I did to deserve this fate.<br>The tears fall down my face  
>Burning in their cold heat<br>Can a person die of a broken heart?_

_My life is not worth living  
>If he's not in it too.<br>My heart feel incomplete  
>And weighted down with guilt<br>Cause I can't tell him "I love you."_

_My heart is struggling to beat  
>I've been shattered, crying in defeat<br>Now I'm a ghost, cause he left me alone  
>There will be no second chance for me<br>I mean, surely no one could ever love a ghost_."

Gabby grinned a little and mumbled something along the lines of: "That's nice, really emotional…" Mabel beamed. Dipper shook his head, amused. How Mabel had managed to get her to even say anything when all she would say to him was the occasional 'Shaddup!' was simply inexplicably funny.

"That was a really nice poem, Mabel!" Pat said from the driver seat as they pulled into a driveway with a red banner reading "Welcome young writers!" beside it. Gabby began chewing on her bottom lip and picking at her nails anxiously. Mabel was drumming on her leg, and Dipper suddenly felt very twitchy. Pat parked, and the three young authors jumped out the second their seatbelts were undone and the door opened.

"Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap. We're here! Oh my God! This is SO AWESOME!" Mabel squealed. Gabby waved her hands around in the air and muttered something like 'Woo.' Dipper was a little shocked at how… indifferent she was being.

"Where do we sign in?" Dipper asked. A tall teenage guy in a red AuthorQuest shirt walked over to the small group.

"You see that canopy over there? The one with the picnic table under it? Just talk to that lady sitting there, that's Ann Rowland. She'll get you signed in and give you guys your name tags." He said. Pat smiled and nodded.

"Thank you, young man." She said with unusual bravado, and ushered them over to the canopy. They were in line behind a girl in a ponytail with her mother.

In about three minutes, the girl was done being signed in, and they were up.

"Wow, quite a big group here!" Ms. Rowland exclaimed. "What are your names?"

"I'm Mabel Pines."

"Dipper, I'm her brother."

"Gabby Crossley…"

"Great, now," Ann looked at them over the rims of her glasses, causing Gabby to snicker. "Do any of you have any food or electronics on you?" They all shook their heads in one synchronized movement. "Do you write fiction?" The three paused, unsure whether this was a trick question.

"Does sci-fi count?" Dipper asked. Ann laughed.

"You're good to go. Here are your nametags," She handed each of them a wooden geometrical shape, with their names on them, attached to a leather cord; "You can go decorate them inside the cabin."

"Later, Nana." Gabby said, and hurried into the building. Dipper's head tilted to the side. Why was she always hurrying? Why was he so curious? Why was he asking himself questions inside of his head?

"Shut up, curiosity!" He yelled, causing most of the people milling about outside to glance in his direction. He felt his face heat up and walked inside, avoiding their gazes. Mabel skipped after him, and the two of them sat down by Gabby at one of the six(ish) picnic tables. She skewered them both with a cold glare.

"Just because I was forced to talk to you for a few days doesn't mean we're suddenly BFFs. You can sit with me, but I swear, if you ask me anything, I will suck out your eyeballs and rip out your throats." She growled. The girl who had been in front of them in line, who was sitting across the table, scooted down to the other end. Gabby smiled in a not at all friendly manner and bent back down over her nametag.

Dipper sighed and found a blue sharpie, which he used to doodle pine trees of various sizes on his triangular nametag. Mabel, on the other hand, was some kind of gradient pattern, from yellow to green to blue to purple across her wooden heart. Dipper tried peeking at what Gabby was drawing on her wooden rectangle. He was shocked to see a very familiar triangle with a top hat taking shape behind her curtain of hair.

"_Mabel!_" He whispered urgently, turning away from the strange emo.

"_What?_" Mabel whispered back.

"_She's drawing Bill Ciphers on her nametag!"_

"Actually, she's drawing a skull. Please kindly mind your own business." Gabby snapped, leaving them unsure as to how she'd heard their conversation. "Oh don't pretend you're shocked! Your whispers are as loud as my regular voice."

"Do you mind if I sit here?" A girl with large hazel eyes and honey colored hair asked, shifting her backpack straps on her shoulder. Dipper smiled.

"Sure. Maybe Mabel'll actually get to talk to someone." He said, laughing. Gabby fixed him with an icy glare, which he returned. If she was going to be a wad, he'd be a wad right back.

"Cool, my name's Cianna. I'm just taking a guess, you're twins, right?" The girl said as she sat down. Mabel nodded while Dipper laughed.

"Yeah, I'm Dipper Pines, and this is my sister Mabel. And the emo currently looking ready to murder me is Gabby, but luckily we're not related to her." Dipper said. Gabby's eyes narrowed.

"I AM NOT EMO! Don't you ever call me emo again, or I swear I'll dissect you!" She threatened in a very unpleasant monotone, then got up and sat at an empty table on the other side of the room. Cianna laughed awkwardly.

"She sounds more psychopathic to me." She remarked. Mabel laughed along with Dipper, who was only half listening. Was he hallucinating, or had he just seen a tear sparkle on Gabby's face? He decided on the hallucination, because as he took a double take, it was gone.

"Hey guys! When you hear your names, come up and get your bags! They have your tee shirts and water bottles, and once you have them, you can go upstairs if you're a girl, or into the bathroom if you're a guy, and put on the top. Cause in a few minutes, we're going to take a group photo!" The same guy who had directed them to the sign-in pavilion said loudly from the front of the room by the door to the kitchen. The approximately 60 campers quieted their conversations, listening anxiously for their names.

"Gabby Crossley?" He called after a few names. Gabby got up and sulked from the back of the room, grabbed the bag, and went upstairs. Dipper continued doodling his little pine trees on the triangle of wood. This carried on until Mabel poked him in the ear.

"Go get your bag, Dippingsauce. I can't get mine until you do."

Without anymore prompting, Dipper got up, trying desperately to ignore the heat in his cheeks. He took his bag from the counselor and went into the bathroom just as the guy called out "Mabel Pines?"

He took the last open stall, locked the door behind him, and pulled off his vest. After that, he opened up the red drawstring backpack and pulled out the also red tee shirt. He peeled off his orange tee shirt, stuffed it in the bag, and pulled the camp shirt over his head. He then pulled his vest back on, shouldered the sack, and went back out into the common area. Gabby had returned from upstairs, and was scribbling in a notebook. Not that that was out of the ordinary for a writing camp, but she had hardly done anything but write or sulk in the entire four days he'd known her.

Mabel had also come back down; fretting about how she'd picked her llama hair sweater specifically for this. Cianna looked amused, but was telling her that she'd to wear it tomorrow, probably. Dipper sat back down next to Mabel.

"Dippy, wanna go outside? We can right by the lake, it'll be awesome!" Mabel exclaimed, turning towards him. He gave her a straightface.

"If you hadn't just blown out one of my eardrums, I would've said yes." He grumbled. Cianna giggled.

"Quit being such a grumpy-grump!" Mabel demanded. Dipper shook his head, although he couldn't help the laugh that came out of his mouth.

"You guys act just like me and" Cianna was cut off by the sound of a bell ringing outside.

"Campers, please come meet up to get your buddies and learn the rules!" Ann Roland yelled from outside. Dipper got up and walked outside, followed by Mabel and Cianna. Gabby was somehow already sitting on one of the wooden steps in the shade of a tree.

End of Chapter Two


End file.
